Hat stand



July 6 1926.

J. G. HUYE HAT STAND Filed March 29, 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 J. G. HUYE HAT STAND 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 29, 1924 1: 1 ewe a 2/ In! O jnuen r.- Jasgvl GTE age,

Patented July 6, 1926.

UNITED STATES JOSEPH G. HUYE, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

HAT STAND.

Application filed March 29, 1924. Serial No. 702,843.

This invention relates to collapsible paper board or card board collapsible and foldable hat stands for securement more usually in bat boxes of either the retail or wholesale type.

It has for its primary objects to provide a collapsible stand which may be formed by a single die stamping operation from a suitable card board, paper board or similar cheap material; to, provide a stand which as erected will have a firm continuous sectional lapped crown of a form suitable for its purpose; to provide means for radially bracing each section for substantially its full height in erected position; to provide means for positively interlocking the sections together at their adjacent end portions to lock the parts in their relative positions in erected reation; to so form the parts as to adapt them to receive an alternative or supplemental holdingelement or encircling cord or resilient band and correctly position said alternative or supplemental holding element; to provide for securement to the box surface at a plurality of points over a wide area; to provide a stand which may be collapsed to lie perfectly fiat against the supporting face of the box, or may be folded over flat upon itself so making it universally applicable in one size to all different size hat boxes and avoiding interference with the usual nesting of set-up boxes in the. stock room; and to provide upper lips or flanges which may be employed to aid in supporting a high crown of a hat, thus making it possible to effect a very large saving of tissue paper heretofore used or stuffed into the crowns of high crown hats to support them, or which may be folded so as to cooperate with each other in bracing the upper portion of the stand crown, all of which objects, among others, are accomplished by the construction, combination and arrangementof parts, all as hereinafter more particularly set forth, described and claimed.

Practically all millinery dealers desire to have a strong rigid efficient dependable hat stand in their boxes, but such stands and their attachment have heretofore involved considerable expenditure in money and in space, the latter objection being also a very serious one in that it is the practice in carrying setup boxes in stock to nest the smaller boxes in the larger ones to save space in the stock room, which would not be practicable if a permanent form hat stand be used, so that the difficulty to provide the hat stand While avoiding appreciable expense and while retaining the advantage of nesting in a perma nent form set up box, or of flat collapsing or folding in a knockdown set up box or in a folding box and avoiding the expense of a permanent form stand and its mounting, but they have failed to provide a suitable answer and the well recognized demand has up to the present remained unfilled.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrative merely of but one embodiment of my invention to better aid in the understanding thereof, but without any desire or intention of being limited thereto, it being recognized that my invention may be embodied in a number ofother forms and modifications:

Figure '1 represents a top, plan view of a hat box with the cover removed and with a stand embodying my invention and in collapsed and folded condition secured to the upper face of the bottom of said box;

Figure 2, a view similar to Fig. 1, the stand being collapsed, but not folded;

Figure 3, a top plan view of the stand in erected condition;

Figure 4, a side elevation of the stand as erected;

Figure 5, a sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3; and

Figure 6, a sectional view on the line 6 6 of Fig. 5.

' Referring now in detail to the drawings, A designates the sides of an ordinary hat box, and B the bottom thereof.

The hat stand is to be secured to the inner face of the bottom B, preferably at the central portion thereof, and may be similarly applied to the inner faces of the sides and tops and will preferably be so applied in big shipping boxes or cases for wholesale milliners, and in order that, it may be securely held thereto I provide for attachment by gluing or pasting, as indicated, or any other suitable known means, over a wide area.

In the embodiment illustrated the hat stand is formed from a single integral piece of cardboard or paper material and has a plurality of base fingers 1 extending from a common central portion and each provided along one radial side with a portion scored along said side, as at a and along a line at right angles thereto, as at Z) and cut along a third line as at 0, these three lines a b and 0 defining a triangle which in erected condition is folded along the base score line a and at right angles thereto along the score line b, so that as erected the portion defined by the lines a b and c constitutes a triangular vertical radially disposed bracing rib 2 with a peripherall extending outer crown section 3 integral with the radially outer end of said rib 2 and extendin peripherally to the next adjacent rib 2 in the direction in which it is folded on line Z), at which point it is provided with a score line (Z beyond which extends in a general peripheral direction an integral flap or overlapping end portion a. The portion 3, along a straight line from the upper end of rib 2 to the upper end of flap 4: is provided with a scored line 6, beyond which extends the integral flap 5, which may be folded at right angles to the portion 3, as illustrated in Fig. 5, when used with a low crown hat, the ends of said portions 5 of the respective sections 3 as thus folded abutting and serving to make up acomposite reinforcing flange for the top of the sectional crown or may be folded over on the score line 6 to an intermediate position, as illustrated in Fig. 4, for use with a high crown hat, said flaps 5 in such intermediate position serving to support the high crown of such hat and so avoiding the need for excessive use of packing tissue paper as heretofore the usual practice.

A substantially U-shape tongue 6 is cut out of rib 2 and crown section 3 and left integral with the latter section is adapted to be inserted in an opening formed by cutting out a sharp cornered tongue 7 adjacent to the scored line (Z of the adjacent crown section 3 in a direction reverse to that of the fold along line b, said tongue 6 and 7 lying in the same horizontal plane in the erected condition of the stand and registering with each other, and the tongue 6 being provided with a central notch 8 in its free end and extending beyond the cooperating tongue 7, and the adjacent face of the section 3 carrying said tongue 7 and being engaged and positioned by said tongue 7, all as illustrated in Figures 3, i and 6.

Adjacent to the tongue 6 each section 3 is cut out as at 9 to form an opening which may. be closed by a tongue 10 left integral as shown, and each flap 4 is provided with an integral locking tongue 11 which will preferably correspond in shape to the opening 9 and tongue 10, but will be of slightly greater width than said opening 9 and in assembled or erected position will register therewith, as illustrated in Figures 4, 5 and 6, so as to be shoved through said cooperating opening 9 to lock the sections 3 together in a composite continuous endless vertical crown wall, as shown in Figures 3 and l. The tongues 11 are of grea'er width than their cooperating openings 9, as above stated and rly shown in Fig. 6, so that in being forced through said respective openings 9 they will be deformed and their side edge portions rolled back, so that as thus pressed in and compressed transversely the sides of the tongues 11 will press tightly against the side walls of the respective openings 9, as illustrated in Figure 6 in slight exaggeration, and so look the sections 3 together.

The base composed of the separated fingers 1 is secured to the upper face of the bottom B of the box by gluing or pasting or other usual suitable known means at the free end portions of said fingers 1, as at 7, and may be similarly secured at the central portion of the base, as at 9 where all of the fingers 1 are connected together.

In case some of the tongues 11 are broken by use, or if preferred, instead of relying on the tongues 11 to lock the sections 3 together, a rubber band or a string 12 may be applied around the erected wall or crown to lie in the notches 8 and so hold the sections 3 of the crown in interlocked or interengaged erected condition. Of course either means of locking or holding together may be used alone, or both may be used together.

As thus erected it will be noted that each circumferential section or portion 3 is directly braced against inward displacement by the radially outer ends of at least two radial bracing ribs 2 from top to bottom, as is well illustrated in Figures 3 and 5.

In the embodiment illustrated a continuous sectional crown pentagonal wall stand is represented and has five fingers 1 to the base, five bracing ribs 2 and five circumferentially disposed interconnected wall sections 3, but this is merely because the embodiment selected for purposes of illustration happened to be so constructed, and the outline of the wall, the number of fingers 1, braces 2 and wall sections 3 may be varied and more or less, of course resulting in variations in the crown wall outline, such variations being obtained by figuring the cuts and score lines on different angles as necessary in accordance with the number of fingers 1, braces 2, sections 3 and crown wall outline to be provided in a desired or given stand.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A hat stand comprising a base, a collapsible sectional crown wall, and bracing ribs connecting the respective sections of said wall with said base at all times in all stages of erecting and collapsing and as erected and collapsed and, in erected condition, bracing said sections against inward displacement.

2. A hat stand comprising a base, a collapsible sectional crown wall, and foldable bracing ribs connecting the respective sections of said wall with said base at all times in all stages of erecting and collapsing and as erected and collapsed and, in erected condition, extending radially and in a vertical plane and bracing said sections against inward displacement.

3. A hat stand comprising a base, a crown wall, and a plurality of flanges extending from the upper portion of said wall when the latter is erected, said flanges being adapted to be bent to aid in supporting the crown of a hat.

4:. A hat stand comprising a base, a crown Wall, and a plurality of flanges extending from the upper portion of said wall when the latter is erected, said flanges being adapted to be bent to aid in supporting the crown of a hat or to be bent inwardly at a different angle and having their end edges formed to abut in such latter position to form a composite bracing flange for the upper part of said wall, bracing the latter against inward deformation.

5. A hat stand comprising a base, a collapsible sectional crown wall, and bracing ribs connecting the respective sections of said Wall with said base at all times in all stages of erecting and collapsing and as erected and collapsed and, in erected condition, bracing said sections against inward displacement, said sections being formed with interengaging means and being provided with interlocking means to maintain said interengaging means in engagement and said ribs and sections in proper relation in erected condition.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification at Washington, in the District of Columbia, this 29th day of March, 1924:.

JOSEPH G. HUYE. 

